Skip to main content
Type something to search...
to navigateto selectESC to close
Caroline Creane

Caroline Creane

Caroline Creane is an aviation psychologist certified with the European Association of Aviation Psychology, with a background in occupational psychology and psychometric testing. She has spent 11 years at Symbiotics, a UK-based human performance company with around 30 years in aviation psychometrics and a team of just under 20 specialists. Her work sits at the point where flight schools stop guessing about who will finish training and start measuring it.

Professional Background

  • Aviation Psychologist: Certified with the European Association of Aviation Psychology
  • Occupational Psychology: Background in occupational psychology and psychometric test design
  • 11 Years at Symbiotics: Helps develop the company’s psychometric tests and guides flight schools and airlines through implementing selection programs
  • Global Reach: Supports a testing platform used in more than 80 countries across 130 or more locations

The ADAPT Platform

Symbiotics’ testing platform runs entirely online through a web link, requiring no local software and working for students anywhere in the world. Caroline is emphatic that it is not an aviation knowledge exam — it measures natural ability and underlying traits across three areas:

  • Knowledge: Foundation areas such as math and physics that theory training builds on
  • Aptitude: Psychomotor skills, processing speed, working memory, and capacity to handle a multitasking environment
  • Personality and Behavior: Emotional stability, teamwork, motivation, and self-discipline
  • Hazardous Attitudes: Screens for the same risk-taking tendencies the FAA emphasizes in decision-making training
  • Aviation-Specific Norms: Scores are compared against an aviation population rather than the general public
  • Fast Reporting: A report is generated within about five minutes, with matrix reports for full cohorts

Areas of Expertise

  • Psychometric Assessment: Design and validation of tests that predict flight training success
  • Pilot Selection: Combining cognitive ability with personality traits like conscientiousness and emotional stability
  • Student Retention: Identifying where a student is likely to struggle before training begins
  • Accreditation Standards: Prescreening requirements tied to the International Aerospace Accrediting Commission
  • Test Integrity: Large question banks, remote invigilation, and emerging eye-tracking safeguards against AI-assisted cheating

Key Insights for Flight School Owners

  • Prescreening is not a rejection tool: Schools decide how to use the report — as a development plan, an instructor-pairing guide, or an informed-consent debrief
  • Washout rates are a business problem: Some Symbiotics clients have pushed washout below 5 percent, a 95 percent training success rate
  • The hard conversation belongs at the start: Telling a student their real chance of success before a six-figure investment protects both the student and the school
  • Accreditation is coming: The IAAC standard requires some form of prescreening, and accreditation is the path to Sallie Mae loan access
  • The predictive profile is consistent: High conscientiousness, low neuroticism, and enough assertiveness to speak up in the cockpit

Episodes featuring Caroline Creane